Typology In Progress (Both 1 and 2)

First Week; To begin this "progress" checkpoint, I knew I wanted to challenge the idea of a portrait by representing someone through an object. I first started this assignment by brainstorming a list of objects I felt captured someone's essence, all listed below.

I think you can really see someone's history and childhood through the lens of their possessions, and stuffed animals are something that most people have an attachment to and keep throughout their lives! My goal was to capture these animals as if they were a branch/extension of the people that own them! Someone told me once that people look like their dogs, and I thought it would be interesting to explore this idea through stuffed animals as well. The rules I came up with as a result of this are below.

1) Use flash (for consistent lighting depending on the bedrooms)

2) Photograph the animals in the same orientation, both on the person's current bedding (duality of past and present) as well as tucked into the bed itself.

3) The animal must have sentimental value to the person in some way! Not necessarily from childhood, but it has to have some relevance to their lives.

Second Week;

After this, my first thought was to photograph people with their childhood stuffed animals, but seeing as it was an object study, I found it was more poignant if the animals were captured on their own in place of a portrait. However, here are progress photos of my best friend Morgan and her stuffed frog Hops.

After this, I began to ask around my friend groups to capture photos just like the last two pictured above.